Jacob Stewart

Mr. McConnell
US Government & Economics
18 September 2017

World Governments

Monarchy: Sweden
Sweden’s present-day monarchy is a constitutional monarchy. In most European monarchies,
this means that the monarchy is more representative, and the power to create and pass legislation
lies with elected authority, and the government. The monarchy of Sweden, however, puts a little
twist on this, giving the king some power. Sweden’s current King is Carl XVI Gustaf of
Sweeden. Though the king is fairly representational, and a continuation of Sweden’s history and
culture, he still holds a few powers, and has a small role in Sweden’s government. The king’s
duties that come with being the head of state are as follows; First, the king heads a special
cabinet that assembles whenever there is a change in government. He also heads the regular
information councils. Another one of his duties is annually opening the Riksdag. The Riksdag is
the national legislature of Sweden, and also holds the power of supreme decision-making in the
country. He chairs the Advisory Council on Foreign Affairs’ meetings, making sure everyone
has the agenda, any papers they need, and informing the council on the what the meeting is
about. He holds the title of highest ranking representative in Sweden’s defense establishment,
and serves as the honorary commander of specific military units. One of his final, but most
important roles, is that he serves as the prime director of Sweden’s relations with other countries,
appointing Sweden’s ambassadors, visiting other countries to meet with foreign leaders, and
hosting any foreign leaders or ambassadors who visit Sweden. These may seem like a lot of
economic and governmental changing duties and functions, but most are just different ways in
which the King represents Sweden, but does not actual control the government or its actions. The
Riksdag is the actual government of Sweden that makes decisions.
Dictatorship: North Korea
North Korea’s form of government is a dictatorship, specifically a totalitarian dictatorship.
Totalitarian dictatorship, often referred to as the most extreme form of a dictatorship, means that
the authority of the country has absolute control over every aspect of life within the country.
North Korea’s current leader is a young but ruthless dictator named Kim Jong-Un, who took
power of the country in 2011 after his father, Kim Jong-II died of a heart attack. He has gone to
extraordinary lengths to maintain a secure hold on his position, going as far as to murder both
government and military officials. It is estimated that Kim Jong-Un has murdered up to around
350 people through various means, the most prominent being public executions. However, to
maintain a somewhat favorable amount of support from his people, he had decreased the amount
of brutal murders he was committed and had banned public execution. This only lasted up until
around the end of last year, and once again, he has continued to mercilessly murder anyone who
he believes poses a threat to his rule, or stands in his way. Kim Jong-Un has the countries media
praising his family, and portraying them as having a touch of the divine. The ruthless dictator has
been trying to control all aspects of the country’s life. He promotes atheism as the main religion,
with the desire of portraying himself as the highest power and the “God,” of the country. He
punishes anyone who defies him or talks down on him. This shows in the fact that more than one
citizen in every one hundred is a prisoner in one of the country’s continuously growing prison
camps. Kim Jong-Un strives to be one of the most dominant military powers on the face of the
earth. Lately, Jong-Un has been the source of worldwide panic and controversy, as he and his
military have been testing nuclear missiles, firing them over nearby countries, and threatening to
send them to the current dominant military force, the United States. Kim Jong-Un maintains his
very ruthless dictatorship that seeks nothing but promotion of self to the most powerful and
dominant leader, striking fear into the hearts of any who dare stand against him.

Theocracy: Afghanistan
Afghanistan is one of the first countries that comes to mind when you think about countries that
have a theocratic government. A theocracy is a form of government, usually headed by someone
who is believed to be under divine guidance, in which the legal system is closely aligned with
religious law and beliefs. The current leader of the country is Ashraf Ghani. Ghani is a
“Visionary theocrat,” who possesses a deep understanding of the things that have destroyed and
ruined his country, as well as what he thinks could save it, and accomplish his goal of
transforming his country once again. There are many customs and legal justice aspects of this
country that are defined by religious law. One of the biggest ones, that America is attempting to
help with, is women’s justice. In the Islamic religion, men and women are seen as equal, but not
seen as the same. Women are not necessarily seen as inferior to men, but in the Islamic religion,
the role of women is to serve their husbands, provide them with children, and obey them. They
don’t necessarily have all the same rights as men. This often times causes problems. In many
instances in which violent acts are committed against women, they do not receive the justice that
is due to them, because it isn’t seen as wrong for a husband to punish his wife if she is not doing
as he says and being a “good” wife. Women are punished extremely for acts of adultery or any
other act that would be seen as disrespectful to their husband. However, Ghani is in support of
this, and is disgusted by women’s’ treatment at the hands of the Taliban. Still, there are many
laws and justice procedures that are based on Islamic law, and that is what establishes this
country as a theocracy.

Direct Democracy: Switzerland

Switzerland is an example of a country in which the form of government is a direct democracy.
A direct democracy is a form of government that basically gives almost all the power to the
people. Citizens meet and vote on laws and policy initiatives that are discussed and either altered
or put into place by. The current president of the Swiss Confederation is Doris Leuthard who’s
term just began on January 1st, 2017. However, in this type of government, the president is not a
full-time president like the one we have here in America. Most of the president’s representational
functions are collectively taken over by various members of the government. Switzerland both
promotes and maintains constant interaction between the people, the country’s two-chamber
parliament, and the heads of Switzerland’s departments and administrations, to support a direct-
democracy. Citizens may suggest changes or improvements to the constitution at any time if they
can gather enough support to back their changes or improvements. After the citizen gathers
enough support to suggest the idea, Switzerland’s Parliament discusses the suggestion, usually
making a few changes to it, or an alternative option, and proposes their revision back to the
citizens. It is then up to the people to decide what they will do. Through referendums, in which
all people of the country are able to participate in if they wish, the citizens decide if they will
accept parliament’s response, (In the case that parliament completely agrees with the citizens’
suggestion,) accept parliaments alternative plan, or continue to promote the original suggestion
(in the case that the changes parliament makes are not satisfactory to the people, or in the case
that the people refuse to have any section of their suggestion altered.)

Republic: United States of America

The United States of America, the country in which we live, has a republic form of government,
which can also be referred to as a representative democracy or an indirect democracy. A republic
is a form of government in which the power is held by the people and their elected
representatives, under the leadership of a president who has also been elected by the people. This
form of government makes the United States unique from a lot of other countries. This form of
government, although similar to a few of the forms of government we have discussed throughout
this paper, is not exactly the same as any of these forms of government. Our form of government
is different from that of a monarchy, because in a monarchy the position of leadership is based
on blood right, and being a first born child of the current king or queen, also implying you are
required to have royal blood. In our republic, the leader of our nation is an elected president, a
position which any citizen who has enough support is allowed to run for, as long as they are
natural born citizen. Even though the monarchy does not rule the United Kingdom, they are a
representation of when they did, and we have no history of kings or queens who were given their
position through inheriting it from their royal parent. Next, there is an obvious difference
between our republic and a dictatorship. In a dictatorship, all the power is given to the official,
and the people have no say in government or economic affairs. In America, our president has
been elected by the people, and our citizens have a say in government and economic affairs. In
addition to the two forms of government we have compared a republic to, our form of
government is also different than a theocracy. In a theocracy, laws and legal justice procedures
are determined by religious law and ruled by religion. In America, although a lot of the church’s
beliefs are aligned with our legal justice system, the church is separated from the state, and our
laws and our justice system are created and defined by our elected government representatives.
Even though a republic is different than all of forms of government we covered in this paper, it
most closely relates to a direct democracy. There is one big factor of a direct democracy and a
republic that makes them similar. That similarity is the belief that the power should be given to
the people. However, in a direct democracy, laws and policy initiatives are voted on directly by
the citizens. In a republic, those types of things are decided on by the representatives that are
elected by the citizens to represent their interests. This is how a republic is a unique and different
form of government.
Works Cited
http://www.sweden.org.za/swedish-monarchy.html

http://www.kungahuset.se/royalcourt

http://www.news.com.au/world/asia/inside-the-secretive-murderous-dictatorship-of-
north-korean-leader-kim-jongun/news-story/65593eff4741be635fa64f999dfe3c61

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-15256929

https://www.usip.org/publications/2012/06/clarifying-role-islamic-law-afghanistans-justice-
system

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/08/world/ashraf-ghani-fast-facts/index.html

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/04/ashraf-ghani-afghanistans-theorist-in-
chief

https://www.usip.org/programs/rule-law-afghanistan-0

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/05/ashraf-ghani-return-traditional-afghan-
governance-160505112448851.html

http://swiss-government-politics.all-about-switzerland.info